16 Days – In a weird scheduling quirk – of which there are several this season – the Caps are in Newark this Friday night, playing their second consecutive road game here. Sixteen nights ago, the Caps came here looking to shake off a rugged 1-3-1 start to the season, a five-game stretch in which they had yielded the first two goals in all five games, hadn’t led at any point in any of those games, and had to have felt fortunate to somehow scrape three points out of those five contests.
This time around, the outlook is somewhat rosier, aside from the ongoing injury cloud (more on that in a bit). The Caps used that Oct. 25 game here against the Devils to claim their first road victory of the season, a 6-4 triumph behind Hunter Shepard, the starter and winner for Washington that night in his NHL debut.
While the Caps are still seeking some consistency in their offensive game, they’ve smoothed out some of the wrinkles in their own end of the ice since their last visit here. The Caps were dented for four second-period goals here in less than eight minutes in that Oct. 25 game, and it took a trio of tallies in the first and third periods for them to overcome the Devils and get Shepard that first NHL triumph. All four of those New Jersey goals that night came on extended shifts in Washington’s zone with tired Caps on the ice.
During the five-game homestand between their two visits to New Jersey, the Caps yielded just 11 goals, and their 2.20 team GAA is fifth-best in the League over that span.
“I think a lot has gone into it,” says Caps’ defenseman John Carlson. “It’s not like we changed anything; more so trying to harp on different areas of the defense, trying to stop plays quicker and earlier to disrupt their flow, and we’ve done it to other teams as well.
“There’s no secrets in this League, but if we go harder, if we close quicker and earlier on, chances are they’re going to make a more broken play, whether it’s a turnover or whether it’s being forced to do something before one of their skilled players wants to. Those sorts of things are good at breaking momentum within a shift. But obviously it comes down to crashing down, and everybody taking care of their guys and their responsibilities. I think we were doing an okay job with it, but certainly this last stretch we’ve been really good with it.”
Carlson himself has been a big part of that turnaround. Entering this season, Carlson’s career high in average nightly ice time was 25:04 per game as a 29-year-old in 2018-19. This season, Carlson has averaged 25:54 per night through the season’s first 11 games, second only to Kings’ defenseman – and fellow 2008 first-rounder – Drew Doughty.
Carlson plays in all game situations and has done so for the bulk of his 15-season, 938-game NHL career. Like the rest of us, he isn’t getting any younger. Unlike many of the rest of us, he is belying his years.
“I’ve been feeling great,” says Carlson. “Obviously it’s a lot of preparation, coming into the seasons and all that stuff. Minutes are different every night, depending on how the game flow is, what kind of special teams; all that stuff goes into it. It’s skewed a little bit one way or another, but I have been feeling good and looking to just keep riding that wave.”
Coaches being coaches, and most coaches being perfectionists, Spencer Carbery’s view on the Caps’ recent play in their own end is a bit different.
“It was a work in progress,” says Carbery. “It wasn't like just an ‘aha!’ [moment]. We've worked really, really hard on some things inside of our structure that we just want to be way more detailed and way more consistent with, and we've shown that. We've done a really good job since then, and we continue to build on it. And that night was probably our best night offensively.
“The second period part, that's something that we still need to work on. You saw it the other night, us getting out-changed in the second periods; [we were] sloppy with some puck touches to where we can't get changes. And now we've got a [defense] pair that's on the ice for over two minutes and things like that, to where there are massive momentum shifts in games, and this team will be no different. They got us on the ropes in this building last time.
“And look for this tonight. In the second period, if you can't exit your zone and they out-change you, and now their best people are on the ice and now they're moving around, it’s really, really difficult to defend. You're going to give up opportunities, and you're going to give up zone time. I felt like it crept back into our game last game against Florida, so it's something that we need to correct tonight.”
Cycle Of Hurt – Once again – and seemingly, eternally – the Caps are working through some things in the room. Just ahead of Friday’s morning skate in Newark, the team announced the recall of goaltender Shepard and forward Nicolas-Aube Kubel from AHL Hershey. The Caps – who also returned center Mike Sgarbossa to Hershey on Thursday – also announced they have activated center Nic Dowd from injured reserve and they’ve placed winger Anthony Mantha on injured reserve.
For the second time in three seasons, Mantha suffered an early November injury in a game against the Florida Panthers. On Nov. 4, 2021, Mantha suffered a shoulder injury against the Panthers in Florida, an injury that required surgery and kept him out of the lineup for four months.
In the Caps’ most recent game – on Wednesday in Washington against Florida – Mantha scored a pair of goals, but by game’s end he was receiving medical attention. A deflected Evgeny Kuznetsov shot caught Mantha in the head, and he had to be helped from the ice and down the tunnel on the occasion of his first two-goal game since April 15, 2022, when he piled up four points in a game against the Canadiens in Montreal.
Sidelined with an upper body injury, Dowd hasn’t played since Oct. 16 against Calgary. He is expected to be back in the lineup tonight, centering Washington’s fourth line and returning to his customary penalty killing duties.
“It looks like he’ll check back in,” says Carbery of Dowd. “Good to have him back there down the middle, penalty kill wise, stabilizing that fourth line. He can also move up and play in some different situations. It’s a positive.”
Dowd has strung together three straight seasons with double-digit goal totals; he netted a career best 13 goals in 65 games last season.
“Being out, you go through a couple of stages,” says Dowd. “You’re frustrated that you got hurt, and then you’ve got to put a lot of work in to get back to a point where you’re like, ‘Hey, I’m healthy, but also my conditioning is good enough to where I can compete against NHL players that have not taken days off. And then it gets to be a little bit of a grind getting back, because there is nothing like ‘game shape;’ there’s nothing you can do.
“But it is really exciting. It’s just nice not to be working away from the fellas, and to get back with the group. It’s emotionally uplifting.”
As mentioned above, Shepard made his NHL debut here against the Devils, earning a 6-4 victory. He is back with the team because Darcy Kuemper is ailing a bit; Charlie Lindgren will start in net for the Caps in Newark, and Shepard will serve as his backup.
“[Kuemper] got a little bit nicked up last game,” says Carbery. “So just precautionary, Shep will come up and we’ll have three [goaltenders] right now. [Kuemper] is on the ice and skating and all that, but he’s a little nicked up.”
Just over a year ago (on Nov. 5, 2022), the Caps claimed Aube-Kubel off waivers from Toronto. He skated in 47 games with Washington last season, totaling four goals and a dozen points. The Caps resigned Aube-Kubel to a one-year contract extension on March 3 of this season, but he opened the campaign in Hershey, where he has a goal and three points in 11 games thus far this season.
Tonight marks the 232rd consecutive contest in which Washington does not have a full complement of players available because of injury. The last time the Caps entered a regular season game with a full complement of healthy players was a March 9, 2020 game against the Sabres in Buffalo, in what turned out to be the regular season finale of the pandemic-abbreviated 2019-20 season.
Climb That Hill – In the Eastern Conference, both Boston and the New York Rangers are soaring early. Out west, Vancouver and Vegas are off to the hot starts. Twenty-five NHL teams are clustered between 10 and 19 standings points on this Friday morning; most teams seem to still be figuring things out and finding their way, exactly a month to the day after the season started.
Washington is obviously in that middle cluster of clubs; the Caps enter tonight’s game as the fifth-place team in the Metropolitan Division standings. But the Caps are only a point clear of the bottom of the Metro, and they’re four points south of second place Carolina, one of seven teams separated by a grand total of five points, behind the frontrunning Rangers.
This weekend presents the Caps with a good opportunity to climb that divisional ladder. With 15 points, New Jersey is in third place. With 13 points, the Islanders – Washington’s Saturday night foe on this back-to-back Metro road trip – are in fourth.
“Easiest way to [climb] is to do beat teams in your division,” says Carlson. “It’s extremely important. I think we’re at a pivotal time in our season, too. We’ve got our feet underneath us, we’re feeling a little bit better about our game, feeling a little bit better in certain areas of the game. I think this weekend will be huge for us to keep building on that, and to springboard us forward.”
Washington is 2-2-0 against Metro foes this season. It was blanked on home ice by both Pittsburgh and the Islanders, and it eked out a home win over Columbus in addition to its Oct. 25 win over the Devils here.
In The Nets – Lindgren makes his third start of the season tonight. He is coming off a brilliant performance against Columbus this past Saturday night, a 34-save effort that earned him his first victory of the season, a 2-1 triumph over Columbus.
Lifetime against the Devils, Lindgren is 2-2-0 in four appearances – all starts – with a 4.44 GAA and an .858 save pct.
Ex-Cap Vitek Vanecek is the likely starter for the Devils; he has had the lion’s share of the netminding chores for New Jersey, and he has claimed six of the team’s seven victories to date.
Lifetime against his former team, Vanecek is 1-1-0 in three appearances – just one of which was a start – with a 2.05 GAA and a .931 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here is how we believe the Capitals and Devils might look when they take the ice in Newark on Friday night:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
15-Milano, 17-Strome, 77-Oshie
21-Protas, 24-McMichael, 45-Phillips
47-Malenstyn, 26-Dowd, 96-Aube-Kubel
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Jensen
46-Johansen, 4-Häman Aktell
Goaltenders
35-Kuemper
79-Lindgren
Injured
6-Edmundson (hand)
19-Backstrom (upper body)
35-Kuemper (undisclosed)
39-Mantha (upper body)
57-van Riemsdyk (lower body)
67-Pacioretty (torn Achilles’ tendon)
Scratches
27-Alexeyev
29-Lapierre
NEW JERSEY
Forwards
73-Toffoli, 20-McLeod, 63-Bratt
18-Palat, 91-Mercer, 28-Meier
46-Willman, 56-Haula, 20-Lazar
10-Holtz, 11-Tierney, 14-Bastian
Defensemen
71-Siegenthaler, 7-Hamilton
88-Bahl, 6-Marino
2-Smith, 43-L. Hughes
Goaltenders
41-Vanecek
40-Schmid
Injured
13-Hischier (upper body)
24-Miller (lower body)
25-N. Foote (upper body)
50-Daws (hip)
86-J. Hughes (upper body)
92-Nosek (upper body)
Scratches
52-C. Foote
